Klarinet Archive - Posting 000346.txt from 2004/06

From: Robert Wood <instruments@-----.net>
Subj: [kl] Re: Several Queries
Date: Tue, 22 Jun 2004 13:38:56 -0400

Dear Klarinet Listserv;

I am a new member- observing since I don’t play the clarinet, but love
its tone.

I have two simple requests.
• I am writing music for beginning instrumentalists - of any age,
returnees with fully formed adult musical tastes. For the Clarinet I
want to write around the idea of easy fingering patterns- as in the
soprano recorder- the easiest pattern would be B,A, and G. Then once the
left hand is set - the D E and F ( F sharp). Is there a counterpart to
the “New American School of Contra Bass” which is profoundly different
from and superceded the old Simandl method which I grew up on along with
the Arban Trombone ( and the revision which carried Tommy Dorsey’s
name). Dorseys and Sinatras long line phrasing were early tonal role
models for me, and I want this quality imbedded in my method.
This is interactive music in which the student is invited to try new
note combinations and rhythms. In other arts the form is treated as a
plastic medium- and the student spends time learning through exploration
as well as being taught the rules and the literature by a clarinet
teacher. I would appreciate for guidance, a set of graded finger
patterns, from the simplest note groups upwards; together with
suggestions for the most musical method books of today. I used to enjoy
the Czerny Op.740 for its modest musicality, but WWII interrupted my
studies, got me out of school and commenced my real learnings in
gebrauchtmusik, fuctional, practical music. After that I was never fully
at home in the conservatory.
Ken Shaw’s several postings suggest a very practical approach and I
would request permission before repeating them.

How prevalent is the use of the A Clarinet by beginners? All the sharp
keys would, I think, be much more easily fingerable? The question-
should I make these study pieces for both instruments?
Finally- The Bear Woodson posting re: Why so much 18th and 19th century
music for beginners -got me to thinking maybe I could work with some of
his music?? So Mr. Woodson - if you would be interested in sharing a
project, please let me know: At instruments@-----.net

Thank you all for the freshness and variety of your thinking, and I
promise not to say a word about my long standing intense anti Bush
political activism, nor will I disclose either the gradual or sudden
onset of feelings that I might not care to mike any reed instrument, or
how I was cured of the need for miking saxophones by the FBI for fun and
profit, and found God.

Sincerely,
Bob Wood

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